Do LNBs get old?

[joddle]

Yes of course I know they do - but does their performance change very much over time? The reason for asking is that I have noticed a distinct dropping of off of my ability to receive ITV2+1 and ITV1 SE recently. About 18 months ago or so after a new LNB was installed neither of these gave problems in the evening and I had virtual 24/7 coverage - but now I am getting break up on these channels after about 9pm in the evenings on both my trusted pace 2600 and my humax foxsat HD - the ITV1 issue is really a non issue as I can watch other ITV1 regions with ease but sometimes losing ITV2+1 is a bit of a pain. The dish and its mount appear to be totally rigid so I cant see how the dish could have moved even a jot since the day it was installed so could this be my LNB or is it likely to be something else? Also have there been any developments in LNBs since I had my Invacom quad installed? Is ther now someting better out there?

 

[Robbo]

Yes they do deteriorate over time, but how quickly and how, I would imagine would be influenced by its environment. Being in a fringe area of course, there may also be other factors outside of your control.

Also, for lower freqs, the adjustable feedhorn is reported to have worse performance, than the higher freqs.

 

[Analoguesat]

If you have had a couple of hot summers thats more than enough to cook the electronics.

 

[ralphmagno]

hello. if the lnb is 18 months old and you are getting the bbc 1 and bbc 2 i would say no the lnb will not get olad that quickly.
unless the cap is broke,or missing or bugs got in the opening and built a nest.
if you are sure the dish is 100 % aligned then when its is braking up say 9 pm have some one watch the channel and slowly twist the lnb and adjust the skew of the lnb.
do this by twisting the lnb 1/8 of an inch at a time clock wise as you look at the dish from the front.
sometimes just a tat off can affect the weekest transponders and the stronger ones will be un affected.
ralph

 

[Terryl]

I have many different types of LNB's that have been in service for over 20 years and have never seen a problem with them, however there was one Invacom LNB that had a problem with the cap disintegrating due to the heat in one location, it filled with water. (Invacom replaced it for free)

Most modern LNB's and receivers have internal circuits to try and keep the LO's on frequency, the AFC try's to keep things running with in a certain tolerance but it could drift out of spec over time, what you could try and do as a test is offset the LO frequency by a few parts per million, if the LO for that LNB is 10750 you can try 10745 or 10755 (or more) as a test. (if your receiver has that function)

If you can offset the LO then try and off set the transponder frequency's by the same amount or more, if you get an improvement then you know your LNB is drifting to the edge of it's AFC range and you might look into a new one, but if you don't see any improvement then you should look into the coax or switch (if any) as a possible source of your signal problems.

I have seen water in the coax do funny things, one problem was that the section that had water in it was laying on a hot section of the roof, when the sun was up it worked, when it cooled off it didn't.

The funny thing is the timing of the drop outs, it only happens at around 9 PM, this may not be the equipment but something else, has anything changed over the time span of the installation?

Things like trees growing taller, a big new building along the signal path, that big new parking lot down the road or someone has cleared a new field for planting.

And one last question, what is the elevation on these satellites, are they low to the horizon? (under 25 degrees)

 

[joddle]

Hi no trees or obsticles at all - no changes in anything to be seen - no insects in the mouth of the feedhorn - in fact it has always had a polystyrene plug to keep the little b's away and so all is clean inside and it was working fine a year ago with the plug in. AM aiming at Astra 2 and have good view of sky from the roof of my house where the dish is mounted - using a fixed feehorn as supplied by the installer fo the dish - the only thing I have not tried to tweek is the skew but a bit loath to do so in case I make matters worse!

 

[Alex2]

Hi no trees or obsticles at all - no changes in anything to be seen - no insects in the mouth of the feedhorn - in fact it has always had a polystyrene plug to keep the little b's away and so all is clean inside and it was working fine a year ago with the plug in. AM aiming at Astra 2 and have good view of sky from the roof of my house where the dish is mounted - using a fixed feehorn as supplied by the installer fo the dish - the only thing I have not tried to tweek is the skew but a bit loath to do so in case I make matters worse!

Just mark the position of the LNB with a pencil, before you move it.

 

[OldBen]

take a look at the pictures of mine in this thread after 6 years of use:
_http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/dish-setup-single-sat-multi-sat-motorised-systems/189511-6-years-hard-service-lnbs-dont-last-forever.html

Maybe I should send it to Invacom for replacement it worked for Terryl!